title: Cholinergic modulation of aged-like retention deficits in young autoimmune mice.
abstract: Separate age groups of autoimmune NZB/BINJ and non-autoimmune C57BL/BNNia mice were compared for habituation of locomotor activity and its retention over four separate testing sessions spaced at 24-hr intervals. A decline in locomotion (distance in cm) or in the time spent in the center zone as a function of sessions was taken to indicate retention for habituation to stimuli within the test apparatus. The time spent in the center zone decreased as a function of sessions in young and mature C57BL/6NNia mice but failed to show reliable between-session decreases in old (24-26-months) C57BL/6NNia mice. When compared with the old C57BL/6NNia mice, young NZB/BINJ mice showed similar impairments. Habituation of locomotion was present in all age groups of C57BL/6NNia mice, but absent in NZB/BINJ mice regardless of age. The retention impairments of 2-4 month old NZB/BINJ mice were attenuated when i.p. injections of 0.04-0.16 mg physostigmine/kg were given just following each habituation session. The effectiveness of physostigmine was substantially reduced when injections were delayed by 20 min or longer following each habituation session. The time-dependent reversal of the aged-like retention deficits by the cholinesterase inhibitor, physostigmine, suggests that cholinergic modulation of memory storage processes may be impaired in NZB/BINJ mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, Fort Worth 76107-2690.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Forster
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lal
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000502:physiology*; D005838:Genotype; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008814:Mice, Inbred NZB; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D010830:Physostigmine / Q000494:pharmacology; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010830:Physostigmine